Ana Santos of Rappler wrote a piece entitled, “Babies are not blessings.” Santos quotes the figures related to having babies as given by Dr. Emma Llanto of UP-PGH and Society of Adolescent Medicine in the Philippines. The whole article hinges on the definition of a the word “blessing,” so let us examine Santos’ understanding of this word by dissecting her statements one by one.

Today is the Feast of the Holy Innocents. In this feast we remember the many children who were killed not only by Herod during the time of Christ, but also the many babies born and unborn who were slaughtered through the birth control policies of Pharoah, Kissinger, and Obama. Now, with the passage of the RH Bill into a law which promotes contraceptives that prevent the implantation of the fertilized ovum on the uterine walls, we can also put Pres. Noynoy Aquino on the list of the birth control autocrats of history.

1. Herod at the Birth of Christ

In this feast we remember the children ages 2 and down who were slaughtered by Herod for fear of a new born king of the Jews who will overthrow Herod’s power:

When Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of King Herod, 2 behold, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem,2saying, “Where is the newborn king of the Jews? We saw his star 3 at its rising and have come to do him homage.”3When King Herod heard this, he was greatly troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.4Assembling all the chief priests and the scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. 45They said to him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it has been written through the prophet:6’And you, Bethlehem, land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; since from you shall come a ruler, who is to shepherd my people Israel.'”7Then Herod called the magi secretly and ascertained from them the time of the star’s appearance.8He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search diligently for the child. When you have found him, bring me word, that I too may go and do him homage.”…

When they had departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, flee to Egypt,7 and stay there until I tell you. Herod is going to search for the child to destroy him.”14Joseph rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed for Egypt.158 He stayed there until the death of Herod, that what the Lord had said through the prophet might be fulfilled, “Out of Egypt I called my son.”16When Herod realized that he had been deceived by the magi, he became furious. He ordered the massacre of all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had ascertained from the magi. (Mt 2:1-16)

2. Pharoah at the Birth of Moses

In this Feast we also remember the Israelite babies who were killed by Pharoah for fear of the growing number of Israelites in Egypt. Pharaoah tried several approaches to birth control for the Israelites: (1) forced labor and slavery, (2) killing of male babies born by midwives, and (3) throwing of male babies into the Nile River. Below is a detailed account:

Then a new king, who knew nothing of Joseph,* rose to power in Egypt.9He said to his people, “See! The Israelite people have multiplied and become more numerous than we are!10Come, let us deal shrewdly with them to stop their increase;* otherwise, in time of war they too may join our enemies to fight against us, and so leave the land.”

11Accordingly, they set supervisors over the Israelites to oppress them with forced labor.d Thus they had to build for Pharaoh* the garrison cities of Pithom and Raamses.12Yet the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread, so that the Egyptians began to loathe the Israelites.13So the Egyptians reduced the Israelites to cruel slavery,14making life bitter for them with hard labor, at mortar* and brick and all kinds of field work—cruelly oppressed in all their labor.

15The king of Egypt told the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was called Shiphrah and the other Puah,16“When you act as midwives for the Hebrew women, look on the birthstool:* if it is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, she may live.”17The midwives, however, feared God; they did not do as the king of Egypt had ordered them, but let the boys live.18So the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and asked them, “Why have you done this, allowing the boys to live?”19The midwives answered Pharaoh, “The Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women. They are robust and give birth before the midwife arrives.”20Therefore God dealt well with the midwives; and the people multiplied and grew very numerous.21And because the midwives feared God, God built up families for them.

22Pharaoh then commanded all his people, “Throw into the Nile every boy that is born,e but you may let all the girls live.” (Ex 1:8-22)

“The U.S. economy will require large and increasing amounts of minerals from abroad, especially from less developed countries [see National Commission on Materials Policy, Towards a National Materials Policy: Basic Data and Issues, April 1972]. That fact gives the U.S. enhanced interest in the political, economic, and social stability of the supplying countries. Wherever a lessening of population pressures through reduced birth rates can increase the prospects for such stability, population policy becomes relevant to resource supplies and to the economic interests of the United States. . . . The location of known reserves of higher grade ores of most minerals favors increasing dependence of all industrialized regions on imports from less developed countries. The real problems of mineral supplies lie, not in basic physical sufficiency, but in the politico-economic issues of access, terms for exploration and exploitation, and division of the benefits among producers, consumers, and host country governments” [Chapter III-Minerals and Fuel].

“Whether through government action, labor conflicts, sabotage, or civil disturbance, the smooth flow of needed materials will be jeopardized. Although population pressure is obviously not the only factor involved, these types of frustrations are much less likely under conditions of slow or zero population growth” [Chapter III-Minerals and Fuel].

“Populations with a high proportion of growth. The young people, who are in much higher proportions in many LDCs, are likely to be more volatile, unstable, prone to extremes, alienation and violence than an older population. These young people can more readily be persuaded to attack the legal institutions of the government or real property of the ‘establishment,’ ‘imperialists,’ multinational corporations, or other-often foreign-influences blamed for their troubles” [Chapter V, “Implications of Population Pressures for National Security].

“We must take care that our activities should not give the appearance to the LDCs of an industrialized country policy directed against the LDCs. Caution must be taken that in any approaches in this field we support in the LDCs are ones we can support within this country. “Third World” leaders should be in the forefront and obtain the credit for successful programs. In this context it is important to demonstrate to LDC leaders that such family planning programs have worked and can work within a reasonable period of time.” [Chapter I, World Demographic Trends]

“In these sensitive relations, however, it is important in style as well as substance to avoid the appearance of coercion.”

Pres. Noynoy Aquino and Pres. Barack Obama meeting in New York in 2011

4. Obama and Planned Parenthood

Here is a short story about the long love affair of Obama and the world’s largest abortion provider Planned Parenthood. The excerpt below is from Life News:

President Obama voted against the Born Alive Infant Protection Act four times, horrifyingly voting against protecting babies who survived abortion and voting in favor of leaving them to die. A vote against this legislation was a vote for infanticide. [Source]

On his third day in office, President Obama repealed the pro-life “Mexico City Policy.” By doing this, President Obama made groups that perform and promote abortion eligible for U.S. foreign aid funds. [Source]

Planned Parenthood’s funding jumped from 33% to nearly 50% – over $487 million in taxpayer funding now goes to the abortion giant (under Obama and his administration). This is almost half a billion dollars that American families are forced to pay in tax dollars to the nation’s largest abortion provider, Planned Parenthood. [Source]

President Obama refused to sign an emergency budget, putting funding the military at risk, until Planned Parenthood funding was included in the budget. This was following Live Action’s Sex Trafficking investigation, showing Planned Parenthood aiding and abetting the sex-traffickers of underage girls. [Source]

The president has pushed for his “pet legislation,” The Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare), which would help fund “community health centers” (Planned Parenthood is their prime target). Additionally, the HHS mandate would force all Americans to fund abortion and contraception, with no exceptions for religious institutions or religious individuals who are vehemently against abortion and contraception. [Source]

I have great faith in Secretary Luistro: Before the next year ends, we will have built the 66,800 classrooms needed to fill up the shortage we inherited—of this, we expect 40,000 for this year. The 2,573,212 backlog in chairs that we were bequeathed will be addressed before 2012 ends. This year, too, will see the eradication of the backlog of 61.7 million textbooks—and we will finally achieve the one-to-one ratio of books to students.

We are ending the backlogs in the education sector, but the potential for shortages remains as our student population continues to increase. Perhaps Responsible Parenthood can help address this.

The cat is out of the bag: for PNoy, the reason why there is a backlog of classrooms is because of rise in student population. PNoy’s solution is simple: responsible parenthood to decrease the number of babies born. In other words, birth control. That was in July 2012. In December 2012, he pushed the ratification of the RH Bill which would teach sex education from Grade 5 to High School. The bill would also make condoms and other contraceptives more accessible through subsidies from the National Government at taxpayer’s expense.

Who is behind this? PNoy is just a puppet: though he takes the main credit as the actor, the one behind the scenes are writing the script. And that script is the NSSM 200 state policy:

“Third World” leaders should be in the forefront and obtain the credit for successful programs. In this context it is important to demonstrate to LDC leaders that such family planning programs have worked and can work within a reasonable period of time.”

There are many ways for the US to coerce a Least Developed Country (LDC) like the Philippines to accepting family planning programs. One way is by tying the program’s implementation to increase in financial aid and investments. The other way is to use abortion providers(Likhaan and Planned Parenthood) and contraceptive manufacturers (pharmaceutical firms) to lobby for the passage of national family planning programs such as the RH Bill. Many senators and congressmen made it appear that they were bought to the idea of birth control through the RH Bill, but in the process they sold themselves and their country for 30 pieces of silver. Actually, they cannot anymore withstand the pressure from US and PNoy who are hell-bent in getting the RH Bill approved. A lunch with PNoy made many congressmen change their votes to YES to RH Bill. The threat of expulsion from the Liberal Party, with the 2013 elections as backdrop, silenced even the Bill’s strongest critics. And there is a pork barrel awaiting the executive’s butcher knife.

PNoy sent the RH Bill as a battering ram against the gates of Congress and Senate and the walls of the two institutions collapsed. PNoy now holds the Judiciary on his left hand, and the Congress and Senate on his right hand. There is now a new form of Philippine government: the PNoy autocracy. Render unto PNoy what PNoy wants. Or else.

With a government like this, more birth control programs are on their way to keep the population in check, to lessen dissent against the autocracy: Divorce, Euthanasia, and Homosexuality. All these are related to the RH Bill:

Divorce. If contraceptives become more available and the youth are taught how to use them through sex education, then there is no more reason to get married, because the youth can get the pleasure of the marriage bed without tying marriage knot. And the husbands and wives who are married would see no more reason for marriage if their neighbor’s wife and husband is prettier or sexier. Then people clamor for the approval of the Divorce Law.

Homosexuality. And why would restrict the pleasures of the marriage bed to heterosexual couples. If they use contraceptives, their sexual intercourse remains sterile. This does not differ from the homosexual intercourse which is also sterile. Then the people would clamor for the approval of Anti-Discrimination Laws to make Homosexuals have the same right to marriage as heterosexual couples. In all these, no children are born or if there are, they are too few to mention–products of accidents of contraceptive failures–and most of them are out of wedlock. The Philippine population plummets.

Euthanasia. Without children, there is no one to take care of the old. The old becomes a liability to the government: senior citizens get pensions and medical care without doing work. So if the government can think that the solution to classroom shortage is by planned parenthood, then there will be similar response to the problem of the aged: kill them off through euthanasia or make them continue to work past retirement age until they die. By the sweat of their brow the aged must eat.

Wake up, O sleeper, and arise! After their fresh triumph in the RH Bill, the opponents of the Catholic Church are now setting their sites on a bigger kill: the Divorce Bill. What is the RH Bill but the divorce between the sexual act and the openness to life, with the condom as the barrier between the mutual self-giving of the husband and wife? Now the State wishes to separate the husband and the wife themselves, to break the marital bond through the Divorce Bill, even if Christ Himself warned us before: “What God has joined together, let not man put asunder” (Mt 19:6). Pres. Noynoy Aquino’s Daang Matuwid is a railroad and the RH Bill is the train that pulls the other D.E.A.T.H. bills forward to their ratification–bills such as euthanasia, abortion, and same-sex marriage–following the pattern of the dying countries of the West who contracepted themselves and their economies to death.

Wake up, O sleeper, and arise! The dust has already settled in the aftermath of the battle against RH Bill. And we now see clearly the RH Bill for what it truly is–stripped of its pretensions, disguises, and double-speak: it is the fast-moving train carrying all the undead to bring life as we know it to an end. Remember The Priest movie. It is a parable for our modern world. If these bills gets passed, it will be the end of the world for Catholicism in the Philippines. Gone will be the Fiestas. Gone will be the Churches. Gone will be the priests. When the State unleashes the forces of fury and hatred against the Church, you will soon see the Pope walking in Manila amidst the bodies of his martyred priests. Remember the French Revolution. Remember the English Reformation. Remember the Mexican Revolution. It happened before. It can happen again–right on our very shores, right beneath our very noses. It can happen next decade. It can happen next year. It can happen next month. It can happen next week. It can happen today. Right now.

Wake up, O Sleeper, and arise! See the Two Standards before you. The Standard of Christ and the Standard of Satan. The Standard of the Church and the Standard of the World. The Standard of Life and the Standard of Death. Choose Christ over Satan. Choose the Church over the World. Choose Life over Death.

Lady Gaga’s concert in the Philippines has sparked a new controversy on whether Catholic teaching on the four last things–death, heaven, hell, and purgatory–still makes sense on the modern world. It appears, however, that modern Atheistic Western Civilization cannot make its own values; it only proposes an idea opposite to what the Catholic Church teaches, as we can deduce from the ideas espoused by the Filipino Freethinkers. The Church proclaims the light of the world who is Christ. The Filipino Freethinkers proclaim the shadow of that Light. So the Filipino Freethinkers can do nothing but object to the Ten Commandments, and in doing so they form their own Ten Commandments:

There is no God. Science has explained everything. I define what is right and wrong for me, and I don’t care what is right and wrong for you. As long as we don’t hurt each other, everything is fine.

You can use the name of God in vain and make fun of him. He does not exist anyway. (Insert blasphemy here). The right to freedom of expression is protected by the Constitution.

Sunday is just one of the days in the week. Sunday is not the time for going to mass but for shopping or playing sports or watching concerts.

We honor our hominid ancestors via evolution and we thank Darwin for breaking our bonds with Adam and Eve. Mother and father are discriminatory labels. That should be parent 1 or parent 2, since both parents may be of the same sex. Actually, the proper term should be couples, because couples does not imply a child. Marriage is only for sexual union, and a child is an unnecessary burden which can be avoided through contraception and abortion.

The aim of each human being is to live life to the fullest. Those who live an unsatisfactory life do not have the reason to live, so they must be killed. Thus, abortion, suicide, and euthanasia are ok, especially for the unborn, the infirm, disabled, the disfigured, and other useless members of the society.

Marriage is not a sacrament but a contract between two parties, which can be revoked anytime. Adultery, concubinage, and fornication are natural relationships like marriage. Homosexuality, pedophilia, bestiality, and necrophilia should not be discriminated by bigots.

There is no such thing as private property and fruits of personal labor. The government owns everything and I am the government.

The first argument is that for animals in serious injury or illness that couldn’t be cured, the and “humanely” thing to do is to “put them to sleep.” So, the argument goes, the same should also be true for humans.

There is no such thing as animal rights co-equal with human rights because animal rights are what humans bestow on animals. Once we lose our biblical moorings, our philosophical arguments goes adrift. When God made Adam and Eve, God gave them “dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and all the living things that crawl on the earth” (Gen 1:28). After the Great Flood, God told Noah:

Fear and dread of you shall come upon all the animals of the earth and all the birds of the air, upon all the creatures that move about on the ground and all the fishes of the sea; into your power they are delivered. 3b Any living creature that moves about shall be yours to eat; I give them all to you as I did the green plants. 4c Only meat with its lifeblood still in it you shall not eat.*5Indeed for your own lifeblood I will demand an accounting: from every animal I will demand it, and from a human being, each one for the blood of another, I will demand an accounting for human life.d(Gen 9:2-5)

If you are going to kill your animal to eat it, God allows you to do it. If you want to kill your animal to put an end to its suffering, the Bible does not explicitly say, but it appears you can do it. But if you are going to kill a man to end his suffering that is another story: God explicitly forbids it, because, as God told Noah, God will demand an accounting for every human life whose blood was shed by another man. Thus, mercy-killing or euthanasia of another man is wrong.

This is what the Cathechism of the Catholic Church teaches about Euthanasia:

Euthanasia

2276 Those whose lives are diminished or weakened deserve special respect. Sick or handicapped persons should be helped to lead lives as normal as possible.

2277 Whatever its motives and means, direct euthanasia consists in putting an end to the lives of handicapped, sick, or dying persons. It is morally unacceptable.

Thus an act or omission which, of itself or by intention, causes death in order to eliminate suffering constitutes a murder gravely contrary to the dignity of the human person and to the respect due to the living God, his Creator. The error of judgment into which one can fall in good faith does not change the nature of this murderous act, which must always be forbidden and excluded.

2278 Discontinuing medical procedures that are burdensome, dangerous, extraordinary, or disproportionate to the expected outcome can be legitimate; it is the refusal of “over-zealous” treatment. Here one does not will to cause death; one’s inability to impede it is merely accepted. The decisions should be made by the patient if he is competent and able or, if not, by those legally entitled to act for the patient, whose reasonable will and legitimate interests must always be respected.

2279 Even if death is thought imminent, the ordinary care owed to a sick person cannot be legitimately interrupted. The use of painkillers to alleviate the sufferings of the dying, even at the risk of shortening their days, can be morally in conformity with human dignity if death is not willed as either an end or a means, but only foreseen and tolerated as inevitable Palliative care is a special form of disinterested charity. As such it should be encouraged.

Filipino nurses and doctors needs to read carefully these words of the Catechism, because Church defines what are morally and not morally acceptable forms of treatment. These statements are rooted in 5th Commandment: Thou shalt not kill. As stated in the original Hippocratic Oath:

I will prescribe regimens for the good of my patients according to my ability and my judgment and never do harm to anyone.

I will give no deadly medicine to any one if asked, nor suggest any such counsel; and similarly I will not give a woman a pessary to cause an abortion.

But I will preserve the purity of my life and my arts.

In this time of Lent, Jesus shows us that the path to human happiness is not by spurning the cross but embracing it. Suffering, when united to the suffering of Christ, becomes redemptive.

We, the representatives of national and international organizations from different parts of the world, advocates of life, the family and the dignity of the human person assembled in Saragossa, Spain, between 6th and 8th November, 2009, in the IV Prolife World Congress, in continuity with those held in Madrid (2003), Lima (2005) and Mexico (2007), address:

All governments, legislators, judges, doctors and medical personnel; political and religious leaders; intellectuals, educators and social communicators; societal organizations; parents and families; and all persons of good will, as custodians of the promotion of the Human rights.

CONVINCED THAT:

1. It has been verified by science that human life begins with the fertilization of the oocyte. In this first human cell (zygote), we find not only the whole genetic program for the development of the new human being, but also the ability to develop and progress by itself, as it is shown experimentally in extracorporeal fertilization.

2. It is said that the worst thing that can happen to a mother is the death of her child. It is worse still to accept the voluntarily killing of her baby. Even if some may deny this at the moment the abortion is performed, to decide the death one’s own baby provokes a feeling of guilt that it is impossible to erase.

3. Six million “legal” deaths in the Nazi concentration camps, constitute the international crime of genocide. It has been seen as the most flagrant violation of human rights recorded in history.

4. Nevertheless, the more than eight hundred million deaths, provoked, up to the moment, by “legal” abortions, in the countries of the world that have authorized it, constitute a crime against humanity that, because of its size and extension, we propose should be called from now on mega-genocide.

5. In addition to being “legalized” in many States, mega-genocide is encouraged – sometimes in a direct way and sometimes using euphemisms-, by the United Nations Organization (UN) and its agencies; the multilateral organisms of credit; certain international organisms, such as the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), IPAS, the Rockefeller, Ford, Bill and Melinda Gates, Soros and other Foundations, the current president of the United States of America and the bureaucracy of the European Union; among other global power groups.

6. In addition, diverse contraceptive devices capable of killing human beings in the first days of life – for example, preventing nesting in the womb-, like intrauterine devices, the morning-after pill, contraceptive pills of systemic use, injectable or subdermal implants, all operate “invisibly” and increase the number of victims of mega-genocide. Also, in the last few years, abortion is promoted by the use of the drug misoprostol, especially in countries where abortion is illegal. All this occurs with the connivance of the health authorities. Finally, diverse practices of artificial fertilization, in which, according to the most trustworthy statistics, only 4 % of embryos reach birth, provoke a number number of victims which it is impossible to calculate.

7. A society that tolerates with indifference the mega-genocide of abortion – be it surgical or chemical – has lost the most elementary vestiges of humanity, and sooner or later it will be inclined to violate other human rights of its citizens.

TO ALL WE DEMAND THAT THEY SHOULD PUT UNDER AN OBLIGATION TO:

1. To always promote rational solutions for human needs which are respectful of life, such as:

• To foster qualified access and attention during pregnancy, childbirth, and the post-natal period.
• To articulate civil institutions that care for pregnant women in situations of conflict, to help them to overcome their difficulties and problems and, in this way, to protect maternity.
• To promote and finance programs that encourage chastity before and fidelity in marriage.
• To execute programs to strengthen the family based on heterosexual marriage, and to educate young people in virtue and in the authentic meaning of femininity and masculinity.
• Pregnancy is not an illness; therefore birth-control should never be understood as part of a health policy.

2. To enforce respect for life, from conception / fertilization to natural death. To recognize the legal personality of any human being, from the initial moment of his existence; and always to act in consequence.

3. To penalize abortion, euthanasia, eugenic practices and the manipulation of human life.

4. Even assuming that abortion is not punishable in some countries and for as long as this legislation is not reformed, abortion can never be considered to be a “ right “, nor can it be included in public health systems. No doctor or medical personnel can be forced, under any circumstances, to take part in an abortion . In any case, the practice of abortion – although it may not be punishable – will always imply a violation of the most elementary premises of professional ethics.

5. To remove legal recognition of any entity which – direct or indirectly-, promotes mega-genocide.

WE UNDERTAKE:

1. To promote all the organizations of civil society, whose purpose is:

▪ To increase awareness of and attention to the post-abortion syndrome.
▪ To create centres to help pregnant women.
▪ To promote family orientation centres.
▪ To extend education in natural methods human fertility management.
▪ To promote a humanist approach to sexuality, based on an education in virtues and love.
▪ To promote adoption as a viable option for mothers in situations of unexpected pregnancies and for newborn children without parents

2. To establish a permanent observatory on the right to life. To publicly denounce those who violate this fundamental right, especially if they are public or political figures during in electoral campaign.

3. To articulate activities with the “ World Action of Parliamentarians for Life and the Family ”, constituted in Santiago of Chile, which took up the Declaration of Lima of our II Prolife World Congress.

4. To promote the revocation of capital punishment for abortion within the UN and regional organisms. To promote an International Convention to ensure the protection of the life of every human being, from the moment of conception to that of natural death.

5. To create and promote political parties that foster human life from conception to natural death.

6. To revoke those civil servants those civil servants, who directly or indirectly take part in the mega-genocide of abortion, eugenics or euthanasia; and to make them answerable in the courts for such acts.

7. To seek compensation for the women who have been victims of the mega-genocide of abortion, so that they obtain equitable damages from the State and other organizations and persons responsible for their suffering.

The participants in this Congress, who adhere to this Declaration, come from the following Nations: